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Cameras offer way to safeguard care

Letters Policy

The Dispatch welcomes letters to the editor from readers. Typed letters of 200 words or
fewer are preferred; all might be edited. Each letter must include name, home address and daytime
phone number.
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The Dispatch.

In his June 30 letter, Peter Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association,
said the use of video cameras in nursing homes is disturbing, but I address why such cameras should
be considered.

Someone I know is mentally retarded and developmentally disabled and lives in a nursing
facility. At 4:30 a.m. one morning last year, a male aide was trying to dress her, and she asked
for a specific type of undergarment.

She said he argued with her and grabbed her wrist, and she told him she was going to punch him
in the nose. He grabbed her arm yet again, this time twisting it hard enough to cause injury. (She
is paralyzed on one side of her body and confined to a wheelchair.)

We took her to the local emergency room and also reported the abuse to the local police
department, the nursing facility and the health department. Because we were told the patient had no
credibility since she was developmentally disabled, no action was taken. At no time did anyone of
authority question the patient regarding this incident, so the case was dropped.

I have a video of the patient describing the incident in detail to me, right down to certain
descriptive features. This evidence also was presented to the appropriate police department, which
has yet to respond regarding this evidence.

The aide in question also did not report this incident to his superiors.

I feel that if security cameras had been in the room, the person who injured the patient would
not be permitted to work with patients in any capacity. I have since learned that this aide has
injured other residents in the same facility, and nothing was done about it, and he continues his
duties of caring for patients.

I would gladly give consent for a camera to be installed in a family member's room for the
simple fact that I cannot be there 24 hours a day, and I feel that if employees know they are being
watched, they may think twice before stealing property from nursing-facility residents or harming
them.